March 26, 2013

We teach English Conversation class and the Planning for Success workshop which is a requirement prior to making an application for the PEF loan. We also are responsible for contacting all the PEF participants monthly. The good news is we have three missions of participants but two of those missions have local Church Service couple missionaries to do the contacts and visits for us leaving only about 200 for us. The real difficulty is finding the ones who have dropped out of school, stopped paying their monthly commitments and as a result usually go inactive. Thankfully that number is only about 30 and we continue to search for them via ward/branch leaders, internet, Facebook, and going to their last known address. In reality there are no addresses here in the Philippines though. They live in barangays(groups of shacks) and we can just ask if anyone knows them and then try to find them. We have never found anyone that way. I hope before we go home we find one that way. The most successful way is Facebook. I am so thankful for technology. I use it daily!! Well I use it when it is working. The Internet, electricity and water, etc. often goes on the blink and we are left waiting for it to resume. That is when we do the street searching because we just can't bring ourselves to sit in the hot office (part of the Institute) and wait. Our third mission was just added to our area of responsibility in February and we will be visiting the leaders after Holy week (we are told everything closes down here then). The mission is two large islands with the second largest metropolitan area after Manila. We live in a fairly large city called Bacolod, but it is very rural. I am excited to spend time in a real city. When we have gone for training in Manila I have loved it. There are real stores, malls, transportation and a more modern landscape including high rise buildings, unlike where we live. We will train the priesthood leaders there and beg them to call church service couple missionaries to assist in the PEF locally. The Philippino couples rarely can afford to serve couple missions (I have only met two) so the couples love being called, set apart, get real badges, and serve a real mission while they live and work in their own homes. These couples visit all the wards in their stakes to keep in contact with their students and that lightens my burden some. My contacts now cover about 7 larger islands. Prior to getting the new mission we would get to those islands in rotation seems once every three or four months. We expect to spend weeks in the new mission getting the service missionaries called and trained. We are excited about the new addition to our work.

It is summer now in the Philippines so the Institute is quieter and there is less energy here as all the students are off enjoying their time off school and Institute. I have to say I love this weather. It is much less humid so we do not walk around sweating all the time. The Philippino's think it is terribly hot, but it is so nice to have a little less humidity. Of course we are desert rats, so it is not our normal to live in this humid climate.

We have many new missionaries arriving ever couple of weeks. The Philippino missionaries only go to Manila Mission Training Center for two weeks and then are sent to their missions. Due to the lowering of missionary age requirement, the other couple missionaries are finding and furnishing apartments like crazy. In fact they have set up at least twenty new apartments in the last two months alone. They expect that to slow down a bit now. We are not part of that work and do not have to do apartment checks for cleanliness or do any of the moving of missionaries luckily due to the call of PEF. Our Bacolod Mission has 4 other senior couple missionaries that do the normal senior missionary work. Iloilo Mission also have 4 senior couples other than ourselves. Since we have not been to Cebu Mission we do not know how many they have. That mission will be split in July making our mission responsibility four total missions. We are hoping we get all the service missionaries set up before that split, but do not know for sure if that will happen.

 

Sister Martinez and Palaya from Mansungay Ward

Great traffic ticket ideas for American police

Friendly group

Bamboo load

Panay daughters Sister Molina, Gay, Sister Canimo

March 2013

We have been in the Philippines now nine months (my husband says we are in our 43rd week of missionary service) and it is now officially summer here.  I actually notice it is a little less humid (thankfully) so I am not sweating to death.  This last week our mission area was expanded to include the Cebu Mission. So...our responsibility will include the six islands: Negros (where we live), Panay and Guimarus (called the Iloilo Mission) and Cebu and Bohol and Siquijor (which are currently the Cebu Mission.  In July it will be split into the Cebu and Cebu East missions. The mission president in Iloilo (President Pacaduan) will complete his assignment in July and we will have a new mission president there and in the Cebu West Mission.  I can't believe the growth of the church here.  It is so exciting to be a small part of that history. We are excited to add the new missions because it will give us the opportunities to travel more to new places and there is a temple in Cebu that we can attend. 

Last week the church announced the creation of 58 new missions including the four in the Philippines.  Two of the wonderful priesthood brethren we love and work with, have been called to be mission presidents here.  One is President Torres, who is currently the Institute Director in Iloilo. President Balledos, is currently serving as the Employment Resource Center Director for Cebu.  We were not surprised by their calls as they are great men and will be great mission presidents. They will both be missed in their current positions though.

This last weekend we were in Iloilo to visit with the Pablero couple and attend church there.  The passage on the ferry over was so rough I spent most of the one hour trip (on the fast ferry: Supercat) in the comport room (bathroom). I was a mess. After I finally emptied my stomach the steward offered me "white flower" and a cotton ball and told me to hold the cotton ball soaked in "white flower" under my nose and I would not vomit anymore.  I wish he had given that to me previously, because it really did work and now I carry a small bottle of it in my purse for rough seas.  One the way home there were about five people sick and provided with barf bags, but thankfully I was not one of them as I now know a preventative measure. Usually when we go to Iloilo we take our car on the slow ferry and it takes two hours.  I am so thankful we were on the fast ferry as it would have been horrible to be sick for two hours.  One was bad enough.

 I am also very thankful that the travel to Cebu is by air (40 minutes) otherwise it is an two hour drive across the island, six hour ferry ride and another hour drive into the city, so Cebu Airlines will be our way of travel and we will have to rent a car.  The first few times we travel there we will probably have to stay at least a business week and two weekends to meet all the priesthood brothers and ask them to call senior service missionaries for us.  Then we will have to go again to train them all.  It is so very exciting.  The senior couples we already work with are so thankful to be able to serve missions here in the Philippines as they probably will never be able to afford to serve senior missions otherwise. As a service couple missionary the couples live and serve in their own stake or district, living in their own home and they continue to work their full time jobs. What a real blessing that is for them and their families.  They also do not have to be senior couples (they can and many do have young children).

Today we began teaching the second batch of Planning for Success for the June school start date.  We think we will only have two classes both in Bacolod (one on Tuesday morning and one on Saturday).  That will be less stressful than driving twice a week to give the classes.  We also have service missionaries starting to teach the same workshop and we will sit in on a couple of them to give the couples support. I am so grateful for the service missionaries who truly lighten our load.  They help teach the workshops, make monthly contacts for us in their areas and support the students locally.  I know there is no way I could contact all the students in our five missions without their help.  With their help I am only responsible to contacting 100 of the 400 participants we have currently.  Cebu missions have 172 participants currently and they will be mine to contact monthly until we have service missionaries there locally called and trained.  I love the interaction with the participants as many have become very close to us and are doing so well with their educations.  I bet I will have as many Philippino Facebook friends as I do American before my time is over here.